About F1

Who runs F1: the FIA, Formula 1 and the teams

Three groups share control of Formula 1. The FIA is the governing body: it writes the rules, polices them and runs the races on the day. Formula 1 (the company, owned by Liberty Media) holds the commercial rights, so it organises the calendar, sells the TV rights and pays the teams. The teams sit between the two, with votes on most rule changes and a contract that sets out how the money is shared.

The FIA

The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile is a non-profit federation of motoring and motorsport clubs from around the world, based in Paris. It runs dozens of championships, of which Formula 1 is the biggest.

For F1, the FIA is responsible for:

  • writing the sporting, technical, financial and operational regulations
  • checking that cars are legal, through the technical delegate and scrutineering
  • running each session, through the race director and race control
  • appointing the stewards, who decide on incidents and hand out penalties
  • enforcing the cost cap
  • issuing super licences to drivers

The FIA's final decision-making body for motorsport is the World Motor Sport Council. Rule changes for F1 have to be approved there before they take effect.

Formula 1, the company

The commercial side is run by the Formula One Group, often called FOM (Formula One Management) or simply "F1". The FIA granted it the commercial rights to the championship for 100 years from 2011. Liberty Media, an American media company, bought the group in 2017.

Formula 1 decides where races are held and signs the contracts with the circuits and promoters who host them. It also sells broadcast and sponsorship deals, produces the TV pictures, runs F1 TV and the official app, and organises the support series on the same weekends. The money it makes is split between the company and the teams. See prize money for how that works.

Formula 1 and the FIA have to agree on many things, so you will see both names on announcements about the calendar or new formats. In regulations, the company is often called the "Commercial Rights Holder".

The teams

Teams don't write the rules, but they have real influence over them. Proposed changes usually start in advisory committees, where technical and sporting experts from the teams, the FIA and Formula 1 work through the detail. The proposal then goes to the F1 Commission, where every team has a vote alongside the FIA and Formula 1, and finally to the World Motor Sport Council.

How many team votes are needed depends on the type of change and how soon it would come in. Changes for the current season are harder to push through than changes for future years, and some safety rules can be brought in by the FIA without a team vote at all.

The Concorde Agreement

The Concorde Agreement is the contract between the FIA, Formula 1 and the teams. It sets out how the sport is governed, how prize money is shared and what each team commits to, such as entering every race. The name comes from the Place de la Concorde in Paris, where the FIA's headquarters sit and where the first agreement was drawn up in 1981.

The current agreement, the ninth, covers 2026 to 2030. It came in two parts. The commercial terms were signed by all the teams in 2025, and the governance side was signed by the FIA, Formula 1 and all 11 teams in December 2025. Among other things it lowered the number of team votes needed to pass a change in the F1 Commission.

Who you see on race weekends

On a race weekend the FIA's people are the ones making the calls you hear about on TV: the race director deciding to bring out the safety car, the stewards investigating a collision, the technical delegate checking a car after the race. Formula 1's people run the broadcast, the paddock, the fan zones and the schedule. The teams, of course, run the cars.